Central Asia news

Another conflict reported on the Tajik-Uzbek border

Citizen of Tajikistan Abdullo Atayev was killed in a conflict in the Istarafshan district (Sogdi region of Tajikistan) on the Tajik-Uzbek border on November 6. Hunshud Rahmatullayev of the PR Department of the Border Guards of the National Security State Committee of Tajikistan confirmed the incident and said Tajik Border Guards set up an investigation panel.

Some Uzbek media outlets with sources in the Press Service of the State Border Protection Committee of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan offered their own interpretation of the episode.

According to their interpretation of the events, 18 or so Tajiks with two border guards providing cover undertook to steal a tractor with a cart of fertilizer from the environs of the settlement of Karakyr (Havast district, Syrdarja region of Uzbekistan) and drive it across the border into Tajikistan. Challenged by Uzbek border guards, the trespassers began throwing rocks. Tension mounted when Tajik border guards began threatening Uzbek servicemen with the weapons they wielded and demanding to be let return into Tajikistan with the loot. "One of the Uzbek border guards fired three warning shots in the air. Somebody threw a rock which bounced off his chest, the border guard instinctively pulled the trigger, and the bullet hit one Abdullo Atayev, citizen of Tajikistan. Atayev, 41, died of the gunshot wound."

Uzbek media also reported that examination of the site produced an empty clip for a Kalashnikov belonging to Tajik border guards, several rounds, and a cap of the kind worn by Tajik border guards.

"All these facts prove all over again that provocations staged by Tajik border guards on the Uzbek-Tajik border become commonplace occurrences. It is our earnest hope that the Tajik border guards command will take measures to prevent any future forays of Tajik border guards into Uzbekistan and any future provocations that lead to tragic consequences," to quote from the press release issued by the State Border Protection Committee of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan.

Border Guards of the National Security State Committee of Tajikistan declines comments pending the end of the investigation. Neither would the Foreign Ministry of Tajikistan offer any comment.